With Butt Nuggets all stitched up, it was time for something new. But I had no idea what I wanted to stitch!

I browsed through online pattern ideas for hours until I finally settled on something.

I found this pretty Butterfly on a Thistle pattern on Etsy. I really like the watercolour feel of it. On Friday night, I got out my floss box and sorted out all the colours I would need for those thistle flowers (and there are A LOT!)

I’m very glad Mom made me this organizer to keep my project all together.

I got one thistle head one, and some of the green completed on the weekend.

And while it’s not big… this project is not simple! There are so many symbols in the flowers. You really have to pay attention!

Any weekend plans we had for being outside were washed out. It was grey and cool with rain on and off all weekend.

Since sewing time is always limited when gardening season rolls around, I decided to take advantage of the enforced indoor time and get to that machine.

On Saturday, I finished up the last four blocks of the Sewcialites sew-along. With work and everything else, I got terribly behind on this one, so it was nice to finally have sometime to catch up and get them done.

I laid out all 24 blocks together, and as you can see, it’s going to be a pretty wild and crazy quilt.

Or … you would be able to see without all those cats in the way! (how you can always tell it’s raining around here… all the cats in the bed)

Here they all are, completely feline free.

I’m pretty sure I know how I’m going to lay them out for the final top, but I won’t give it away just yet. You’ll have to wait! And if our skies every clear up, it could be a long wait! The gardens are calling!

Now is the time when the tulips start to show off.

Like the daffodils, I mixed up all the bulbs and planted them randomly all over the place. I had bulbs from the townhouse, as well as mixes from bulb catalogues and some mixes from the hardware store. It’s been fun watching them all come to life… and there’s much, much more to come.

And also coming to life…

I’ve got a couple Bleeding Hearts. The white one is further ahead than the pink one, but it’s also a little more established.

I have two lilacs, but only this one (Bloomerang) has flower buds. The other one, Madame Lemoine, was almost dead when I got her. She’s got nice leaf buds, but she’s still very small compared to Bloomerang. It might be a year or two more before she’s big enough to bloom.

Both the Crown Imperials are looking lovely still .

And I was quite delighted to discover that in addition to the purple, pink and white Grape Hyacinths, I also got this lovely light blue! It wasn’t listed as par of the mix, but a few bulbs must have snuck their way in. I feel like it’s a little bonus!

As I mentioned earlier this week, one of the things I didn’t get to last weekend was siting my fire pit.

But the project has actually been on the to-do list much longer than that. Last spring, I’d gotten this lovely metal outdoor fireplace on sale.

But we never got around to actually figuring out a place for it and getting it settled.

Mid-week, after work, but while Dave was busy teaching, I decided its finally time. After almost an hour of indecision, I finally settled on a spot for it and got digging.

As much as I’ve complained about the recent rain wrecking my landscaping plans, it made removing the sod a lot easier than it otherwise would have been.

After the sod was off, and the ground was level(ish), I dumped in a few bags of lovely black slate.

After that, it was just the simple matter of settling the fireplace on top!

And now I just need some marshmallows! Of course, it’s been too wet to actually have a fire yet…. but soon enough…we’re going to burn, baby burn!!!

(In case you’re wondering about the white lines on the lawn…. that’s where I’ve got more sod removal to do for more flower beds!)

As spring slowly rolls into nicer weather, I put the kitty cabana back out in the catio yard.

And despite it’s luxury, it looks like it’s not enough for his Lordship… I should make some pillows perhaps?

Happily, the rate of medical appointments between Dave and I has slowed to an acceptable level.

Unhappily, this means progress on the Seascape socks has also slowed to an unacceptable level.

But last night, under the snoopervision of his Lordship…

I put many more rows on it and I’m now about 1 inch past the gusset.

As this is the second sock, if I just put one inch on it every night, I’ll have a completed pair in no time! But only if Burton can keep me in line and on task!

There were two things I really wanted to accomplish on the weekend: Getting the raised bed area prepped and ready for mulch and soil, and siting my fire pit.

I bought the fire pit last year, but we never got around to siting it properly (digging out the sod, and filling the area around with rocks. As a result, we ended up taking a lot of brush and clippings to the transfer station that we could have burned. I have trimmed up all the Butterfly Bushes, and still have to do the Mulberry – I’ve got lots to burn!

After the ice pellet and lawn mower debacle, I ran out of time to do it all. But I did manage to do this:

I got all my landscape fabric laid out and stapled. And my raised boxes are all in place now. I still have one box to place – it’s the makeshift one I had the strawberries and spring bulbs in. It’s still pretty sturdy, so I’m going to paint it up and lay it in that open space at the end.

Then I’m going cut the landscape fabric away from the inside of each bed, line the bottom with cardboard, and fill each one to the brim with soil! The landscape fabric around the boxes will be covered in cedar mulch… much like the paths in the catio.

So, it’s by no means finished.. but it’s nice seeing it all start to come together!

One thing did go right this weekend at least.

With the help of the usual suspects, Ginger Spice…

And the Fluffernutter…

I barreled through the last of those letters and stitched the hen on her little nest.

It was only after I finished it, that I realized I seemed to have chose all the ’70s kitchen colours… Avocado, Harvest Gold, Coppertone… it’s all there! Lol. Eventually, my kitchen will be yellow, but it won’t be Harvest Gold – it will be a much softer shade.

Still, I think this is going to look right at home there. I just have to get a frame for it, which shouldn’t be too hard.

What’s hard is deciding what to stitch next. I have absolutely nothing picked out!

It was one of those weekends…. I had a tonne of stuff I wanted to do, but it poured all day. I decided I’d do our taxes, then maybe get in a little sewing.

Well… I did our taxes… and it took far longer than I thought it would. So there was no sewing. After dinner, I had to go out for milk, and Dave wanted to go into Sarnia to try to get a part for the Charger. All that went fine, until we got home and I realized somewhere along our route I’d lost my house keys.

Much drama ensued. Thankfully, keys were recovered the next morning after retracing the previous evening’s steps. The rest of the day was supposed to be sunny, if on the cool side. I decided to start on my outside list of chores. I got the fence garden weeded, and moved all the garden beds off the lawn, and was about to start mowing the lawn…. and the sky clouded up and started spitting out frozen pellets.

When that stopped, I went back to the lawnmower. Which wouldn’t start. And the rest of my to-do list required the lawn to be cut first.

Thankfully, I have a very mechanically inclined husband, and after a trip into Strathroy and back, and some tinkering, I had a working mower again.

So the lawn got mowed, but I was hours behind on my to-do list. I managed to get one big job done (which I’ll share on Wednesday), but I still have lots to do and won’t be able to get to it until next weekend (which is supposed to be rainy again!)

It’s weekends like these that I have to remind myself to take pleasure in the little things.

Like all my pretty dresses, blowing in the wind on the line! The ability to hang my laundry out just doesn’t get old for me! And despite the ice pellets, this load still managed to dry, and it all smelled so wonderful coming off the line.

And lawn violets! These little guys pop up all over the lawn right through to May.

And signs of life in my Rhododendron. I was sure this shrub was dead. It didn’t look good before winter, and when nothing happened in March and Early April (when my other shrubs were budding up) I figured it was a goner. But I went to pull it out and low and behold… two tiny little leaf buds.

And last… the smile on this cat! He just loves to be out amongst the flowers and fresh air!

What little things are making your day better?

I keep my fancy camera handy with the long lens on beside my work desk. You may recall that I have my computer facing the window. I can’t see much but the Norway Maple, and the neighbour’s roof, but I do get to see the birds that flit in an out of the tree.

In fact, I’ve hung the oriole feeder from the awning over the window in the hopes that I can get some good oriole pictures this year.

I’ve yet to see an oriole, but I did snap one of this fine fellow.

He’d obviously stopped by the backyard feeder for a snack.

I also love the Maple at this time of year. The buds are on the trees are so pretty. They aren’t showy blooms like a fruit tree. The flowers are very small, but they are a great chartreuse colour, and the buds right below them are a brilliant maroon. When the sun shines, they positively glow. They are a little more dull in this picture, because it was a grey day – but they still have a wonderful beauty.

The fall colour of the Norway Maple is pretty much non-existent. The leaves just go brown and fall off. This spring colour is a good trade off.